Premier Yu Shyi-kun yesterday appointed Cabinet Spokesman Chuang Suo-hang (莊碩漢) as the head of the Overseas Chinese Commission, effective Saturday.
The position has been empty since last September, when Chen Rong-jye (
Since Chuang's successor has not yet been named, Cabinet Secretary-General Liu Shih-fang (
One frontrunner for the position is Government Information Office Director-General Arthur Iap (
Iap, however, told the Taipei Times yesterday that he has no interest in the job.
"If I were interested, I would've taken it as soon as it was offered," he said.
Although Yu was tightlipped about the shift yesterday, he hinted that he was leaning toward Iap for the spokesman's post during the year-end banquet with the media at the Executive Yuan on Monday night.
"He might change his mind and take up the Cabinet spokesman job if you guys jointly sign a petition imploring him to do it," Yu said, jokingly.
Chuang, on the other hand, seemed happy about his move to the commission post.
"I accepted the premier's offer right on the spot when he quizzed me on the matter on Monday night," he said.
Chuang, 48, referred to the spokesperson position as the "fax machine of the premier" when he took the job a year ago. At the time he was vice chairman of the Tai-wan Provincial Government.
Chuang served as political vice minister of the Ministry of Civil Service between 1996 and 2000.
INFRASTRUCTURE: Work on the second segment, from Kaohsiung to Pingtung, is expected to begin in 2028 and be completed by 2039, the railway bureau said Planned high-speed rail (HSR) extensions would blanket Taiwan proper in four 90-minute commute blocs to facilitate regional economic and livelihood integration, Railway Bureau Deputy Director-General Yang Cheng-chun (楊正君) said in an interview published yesterday. A project to extend the high-speed rail from Zuoying Station in Kaohsiung to Pingtung County’s Lioukuaicuo Township (六塊厝) is the first part of the bureau’s greater plan to expand rail coverage, he told the Liberty Times (sister paper of the Taipei Times). The bureau’s long-term plan is to build a loop to circle Taiwan proper that would consist of four sections running from Taipei to Hualien, Hualien to
A relatively large earthquake may strike within the next two weeks, following a magnitude 5.2 temblor that shook Taitung County this morning, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. An earthquake struck at 8:18am today 10.2km west of Taitung County Hall in Taitung City at a relatively shallow depth of 6.5km, CWA data showed. The largest intensity of 4 was felt in Taitung and Pingtung counties, which received an alert notice, while areas north of Taichung did not feel any shaking, the CWA said. The earthquake was the result of the collision between the Philippine Plate and the Eurasian Plate, the agency said, adding
Snow fell in the mountainous areas of northern, central and eastern Taiwan in the early hours of yesterday, as cold air currents moved south. In the northern municipality of Taoyuan, snow started falling at about 6am in Fusing District (復興), district head Su Tso-hsi (蘇佐璽) said. By 10am, Lalashan National Forest Recreation Area, as well as Hualing (華陵), Sanguang (三光) and Gaoyi (高義) boroughs had seen snowfall, Su said. In central Taiwan, Shei-Pa National Park in Miaoli County and Hehuanshan National Forest Recreation Area in Nantou County saw snowfall of 5cm and 6cm respectively, by 10am, staff at the parks said. It began snowing
The 2025 Kaohsiung Wonderland–Winter Amusement Park event has teamed up with the Japanese manga series Chiikawa this year for its opening at Love River Bay yesterday, attracting more than 10,000 visitors, the city government said. Following the success of the “2024 Kaohsiung Wonderland” collaboration with a giant inflatable yellow duck installation designed by Dutch artist Florentijn Hofman, this year the Kaohsiung Tourism Bureau collaborated with Chiikawa by Japanese illustrator Nagano to present two giant inflatable characters. Two inflatable floats — the main character, Chiikwa, a white bear-like creature with round ears, and Hachiware, a white cat with a blue-tipped tail
RSS